Harriet Wheelock / Monday 13 December 2010 Winter Weather and Colles Fracture During the last two weeks much of Ireland has been gripped by freezing temperatures and heavy snow, with records for the coldest temperature for the time of year being broken night after night. The cold weather has been putting pressure on the health service with blood donations falling and numbers presenting at A&E with weather related fractures reaching 'crisis point'[1] One of the most common injuries caused by the bad weather have been Colles' fracture, named after the Irish Surgeon Abraham Colles who first described the classic deformity, before the advent of x-rays. Colles was born into a wealthy Irish family in Kilkenny in 1773. He studied at Trinity College and received a diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, before gaining his MD from Edinburgh in 1797. Returning to Dublin he was appointed to the staff of Dr. Steevens' Hospital where he remained for over 40 years. A skilled surgeon and anatomist he was elected President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland at the age of only 28. Two years later he was appointed the College's Professor of Anatomy, Physiology and Surgery. In 1814 Colles published a paper entitled On the Fracture of the Carpal Extremity of the Radius, the fracture which now carries his name. Colles fracture is a distal fracture of the radius in the forearm, with displacement of the wrist. Colles identified the fracture from the distinctive deformity on the back of the wrist, although the injury to the bone can now be clearly seen on x-rays. So why the sudden interest? Well Dr Colles and his fracture might just be responsible for the lack of blog posts in the last couple of weeks. But it's on the mend now, and my one handed typing is getting faster. Images; * RCPI, No. 6 Kildare Street in the snow * Plaster bust of Abraham Colles, after J R Kirker, RCPI 52 * Drawing showing Colles fracture and characterstic deformity * X-ray of Colles Fracture. [1] http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1205/weather.html